New to Blu: February 12 – 18

Terminator: Dark Fate

➢ “Overall image clarity and detail are terrific, less so obviously in moments with a lot of atmospherics (smoke, cloud, water—as in underwater) but that’s to be expected. Texturing is crisp and well-defined without appearing edgy, colours are rich and nuanced, and the contrast is superb — deep yet detailed blacks abound, with highlights that fall short of being eye-reactive but are still pleasingly bright and natural looking.” — The Digital Bits.

➢ “Features some particularly nice use of HDR – especially if you can take advantage of its Dolby Vision master – and moments of impressive detail and sharpness. It’s also consistently much superior to the HD Blu-ray image. At the same time, though, it’s not what I’d consider a reference grade picture.” — Forbes.

➢ “While the [1080p Blu-ray] format doesn’t enjoy the added definition or the benefits of HDR, Dark Fate still looks terrific on this disc. If 4K didn’t exist, this would be demo-material enjoys the same terrific Dolby Atmos audio mix as the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray … Bonus features may not be plentiful, but they have quality material to cover that’s actually worth looking at.” — High-Def Digest.

● Note the NZ 4K-UHD release is single-disc only, without the Blu-ray copy and extras.

Blinded By The Light

➢ “The AVC encoded image (2.39:1 aspect ratio) presentation protects the period mood of Blinded by the Light, offering distinct primaries the enjoy the hues of the 1980s, while cultural additions also register with care, highlighting oranges and golds. Skintones are natural.” — Blu-ray.com.

➢ “The colours (such as they are for Luton) are reproduced nicely and flesh tones appear normal. Image detail tends to be on the soft side given the source material, and there is some jumbling of film sources here. The image does have some minor haloing issues and probably could have been improved upon, but it’s fine generally.” — DVD Talk.

➢ “A slightly softer image than you might expect from a modern production, Blinded by the Light still enjoys fine detail on close-ups, there rendering keen observation of skin textures and hair, even if a mid-range shot comes across that little bit softer than you might like … The UK soundtrack is ‘only’ DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Nonetheless, it’s a very good track indeed, and arguably the highlight of the disc.” — AVForums.

● Note the NZ Blu-ray release also doesn’t have Dolby Atmos TrueHD.

Also out this week are Last Christmas (“unwraps a prim and proper 1080p transfer”), A Vigilante (“a great looking transfer”), Timeless – Season 2 and a slew of anime newcomers, including:

• I Want To Eat Your Pancreas
• Yu Yu Hakusho – Complete Season 2
• Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?
• Goblin Slayer – Season 1 Limited Edition
• Double Decker! Doug & Kirill – Complete Series
• Radiant – Part 1
• Boruto: Naruto Next Generations – Part 3
• Restaurant To Another World – Complete Series.